e.g. If I understand (lmce) DHCP correctly, lmce will re-write the dhcpd.conf file at device detection / removal. Thus, adding / removing a device can be a mental trigger to go re-fix dhcpd.conf. Does the firewall have similar change points? e.g. If I never go into the firewall pages of the admin website, is iptables left alone.

Perhaps I misunderstand a basic element of lmce ... it seems dhcp is generated out of pluto database records. Is the same true of the firewall, and everything else? Including Myth, Asterisk, and so on and so forth?

If so, is it reasonable to turn off the firewall and dhcp within lmce, turn them on within Kubuntu, and proceed as usual? [Understanding that devices will have to be manually added/removed to dhcp as a result, if lmce is to understand them.]

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Why don't you instead work with us on improving our firewall support? This system is intended to be grand central station...and If you keep breaking it by disabling things, we can't help you.. do you understand?

You're only going to wind up breaking things in half by not understanding the purpose of the system.

Sorry, I didn't think I was making things difficult. If I break something, then figure out how to fix it and contribute that back to the community, is that not a good thing?

The point of my questions was to gain understanding. If you are able to answer the questions, could you, please?

If I understand correctly, LinuxMCE is a whole home control system integrating converging 'technologies' such as Asterisk and MythTV into itself. For best results, it wants to be the gateway.

It does not appear to be 'current' in various aspects, such as a limited subset of dhcp. That is certainly true of the firewall interface. e.g. Bogon filtering.

LinuxMCE MUST _INTEGRATE WITH CURRENT SYSTEMS_, such as firewalls, routers, gateways, phone systems, media, and so on and so forth. It _CANNOT_ REPLACE them. A homeowner cannot allow a large block of time to elapse between turning off current functionality and complete and equivalent plus more functionality of the full promise of LinuxMCE. Particularly as the components of lmce progress faster than lmce itself. LinuxMCE total domination depends upon it becoming as ubiquitous as the internet browser.

It is in my mind that I could take another workstation (laptop) and begin building a home system (gateway + network services, e.g. ntp). I can build it up as time permits, testing at various points. At some point it will equal my current systems and I can leave it in full time. For the moment, I will not be using home controls, asterisk, or myth, I'm just building the gateway at the moment. Once integrated into my home, I'll move on to Asterisk, get that solid, then move on to the next piece. Some day, I'll move on to home controls. [Being in Canada, one of the problems is no vendor offered LinuxMCE compatible smartphones. To date.]

Given the learning curve of all 'this stuff' (LinuxMCE, asterisk, myth, not 'computers'), nobody is going to gain all this expertise overnight - starting on this learning curve, now, it seems to me, is a good thing to do to be ready for the future when LinuxMCE should be far more ubiquitous.

As far as I can tell, LinuxMCE is the only thing out there for what should become a standard home server box - controls, alerts, nannycams, (TV) scheduling, and the whole deal. A single box that understands the 'blueprints of the home' (rather than bits of data on different computers never integrating into a coherent whole), and the quite reasonable idea that everything in the home should integrate and cooperate with the best of FOSS breed of each element. And, being FOSS, can adapt and integrate new things into this whole as those things emerge.

If I have mis-read LinuxMCE, they may I kindly ask for a pointer to your FOSS competitor?

Otherwise, if you can help me by answering my questions, or even better pointing me to links that I haven't found that do, I'd sure appreciate it.

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Why don't you instead work with us on improving our firewall support? This system is intended to be grand central station...and If you keep breaking it by disabling things, we can't help you.. do you understand?

-Thom

I do understand. That's where I was headed. My initial questions on the nature of the firewall were just that - initial questions on the nature of the firewall.

But my understanding of LinuxMCE is that it's all or nothing.

Which means I have to get it in, with equivalent functionality to my current systems, to be able to put it under the microscope and in a test environment, to figure out what to do, in order to figure out what/where/how to contribute back.

Which is all where this question is focused. If one of the first things in building a replacement gateway is a firewall, and taking things in small sips rather than all or nothing out of the gate, then it seemed reasonable to me to ask some questions about the firewall.

Thus my questions regarding database generated or not, whether it made sense to turn off linuxmce's and turn on kubuntu's, and so on and so forth.

The initial intent was asking about the nature of the beast, providing the opportunity for someone to point me towards a link that indicates how much more than one would intuitively expect the firewall to interact with LinuxMCE, and asking if turning off LMCE's firewall and turning on Kubuntu's, was a reasonable / viable way to proceed until that knowledge is acquired?

One cannot grok LinuxMCE instantly.

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